3/18/14 - 129 card - stats:

• Board Wipes: 12
• Control: 11
• Defense: 3
• Draw: 38
• Draw Pain: 17 (or other triggers, i.e. Venser's Journal )
• Tutor: 1
• Other: 3
• Mana: 7
• Utility: 4 (non-mana)
• Lands: 38

Interesting build. I like the idea of building around Nekusar and inflicting commander damage, which I'm assuming is what youre going for? As far as things to drop, I would honestly recommend dropping most of the creatures. Its not that any of them are particularly bad, they just don't really help your Nekusar goal. Something like Opportunity might be nice in here. I would also recommend some solid discard cards, since you're making your opponent draw so many cards this will help limit the advantage they gain. Cards like Thoughtseize , Inquisition of Kozilek , Wrench Mind , Despise and Blightning are all possibilities. Maybe couple that with some strong counter spells and removal to control what you're opponent can do with all these cards he's drawing. One good card you don't have that would fit nicely is Rakdos's Return .

Actually, the goal is simply to get opponents down to 0, because 21 commander damage only applies to combat damage, which Nekusar will not get through.

As far as discarding, the reason you don't see any in there is because I've already decided against going that route. Everybody is gonna be drawing SO MANY CARDS, that attempting to control them by making them discard isn't gonna help. People won't mind having 5 cards in hand instead of 7 when they're about to draw 7 more. For a while I had stuff like Locust Miser , Gnat Miser , and Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur (who I'm still considering for the draw) in the deck, but took them out when I decided to embrace the fact that everyone will just have a fuck ton of cards. I'd much rather let people have huge hands and play things like Viseling , Price of Knowledge , and Sword of War and Peace to hurt them. The only means of controlling the hands that I'm still considering is Sire Of Insanity , because it triggers every end step. Still might take it out though.

As far as creatures, yeah I was thinking about going thin on creatures and playing a lot of board wipes instead. It sounds like you agree, so I'll start cutting some

Interesting. Apparently I have playing wrong. I will have to reconsider and take another look at the deck then.

One card I did just think of, however, is Pack Rat . I know he really isn't played outside of standard, and usually with good reason, but in this deck he would at least give you something to do with the fuck ton of cards you will drawing.

Okay, I've finally taken a look at this deck and here are some of my thoughts (these are cards to remove, since you've mentioned wanting to cut down):

Hex : You already have lots of removal/wraths, and the destroy 6 creatures is more annoying than you might think. There will be times when there are 5 creatures out, and one of them is really annoying, but you won't be able to kill it since all you have is this card. I'd take it out.

Promise of Power : You already have so much card draw that affects all players, so I don't think you need this, since it's quite color intensive, and you may not have the life to spare. I have it in my Olivia deck since it's mostly black and I have life gain in there.

Wash Out : This is not as good as, say, Whelming Wave , since it's best when all your opponents are playing the same color, and therefore it's really situational. I'd rather have unconditional bounce, and you have lots of bounch already.

Counterlash : 6 mana is a lot to hold up turn after turn, and it's really bad if you don't have something in hand you want to cast at that exact moment AND that matches the card type you're countering. I'd much rather go for a Dissipate or something, or even a Rewind if you want a free counter.

Jace, Memory Adept : Sure, his ultimate is game ending with Nekusar, but you have to make sure you have Nekusar out AND get Jace to ultimate. Otherwise, he's pretty lackluster, although he's a planeswalker that can serve as an alternate wincon, so do consider keeping him.

Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded : I was half-joking when I suggested him. The fact that he needs to live 3 turns to use his -4 ability (the only reason he's in the deck) is pretty bad, especially since he dies afterwards. I'd recommend cutting him.

Dragon Mage : Expensive and doesn't have haste, but synergistic effect. Consider taking him out, especially if you're going with a creature light build.

Fog Bank and Guard Gomazoa : don't do much and dies to your wraths.

Nightscape Familiar : Ramps and blocks I guess? But otherwise doesn't really fit in here.

Thought Gorger : Doesn't fit with creatureless build, and you don't really want to be attacking anyway.

Stuff to maybe put in:

Black Sun's Zenith : I would put this in since it gets indestructible creatures, and it permanently weakens a creature even if it's not destroyed.

Toxic Deluge : This is a really good card, since you can basically hit anything with it as long as you pay enough life, although unlike with Oloro, I'm not sure you'll have that much life to spare.

Hero's Downfall : Sometimes, you just really need to kill a creature or planeswalker at instant speed.

Curiosity : Infinite combo with Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind , or just good value if you don't want to combo off.

I can suggest more cards later on if you need to change your strategy or something.

thanks for the tips! I'll take most of your suggestions, except for the following:

• Promise of Power I like it more for the giant demon then for the card draw. I have several no-max-hand effects, so there's a good chance it'll be a 20/20 or something. Still not sure about it, but not ready to take it out
• Counterlash you talked about how, "what if you don't have the right card in your hand?" yes, that's why this is a 30c rare. But the whole point of this deck is that i'll have a 20-card hand! I MUST have something good in there lol
• Nightscape Familiar yup it's for the ramp. gonna keep for now
• Thought Gorger I'm definitely down to attack to finish opponents off. But more importantly, it DOES fit with the creatureless build! I'll happily let it die soon after I play it to draw a ton of cards.

As for stuff to put in, I'll go with Curiosity for the combo, and think about Black Sun's. The others don't really bother me; I predict that I'll have an easy time dealing with planeswalkers since I'm doing so much direct damage to players; and I can always just redirect that to the walkers

Counterlash counterpoints: Sure, you will probably have something in that 20-card hand that shares a card type with what you're countering, but would you want to cast it at that point? Consider the following situations:

• Countering an instant: Your instants are mostly counterspells. You're probably not going to want to cast another counter for free while already countering a spell. The few other instants you have, Evacuation for example, you want to cast when you can get the most value from it, not just as a free spell tacked onto a counter.

• Countering a sorcery: Your sorceries are either wraths or effects that make all players discard their hand and draw new ones. There's also Skyscribing and Prosperity , which you don't want to cast for free, so I'm not counting them. Anyway, wraths, like Evacuation , you want to time so you get the most value out of them, and the Time Reversal effects you want to cast when you don't have anything good in hand, since otherwise you could be discarding good cards that could help you win the game.

• Countering a creature: This will probably be the best case scenario, since a free creature is almost always good and you don't usually care what the board situation is (unless you're about to wrath)

• Countering an enchantment, artifact, or planeswalker: These won't come up too often I think, and your artifacts are pretty cheap anyway, and you only have 3 planeswalkers so chances are you don't have one in hand or you've already cast it. Enchantments can maybe give you good value, similar to creatures.

• Countering a land: You can't do that :(

So, that's why I don't think you should keep in Counterlash . However, feel free to test it out and see if it works.

Black Vise ?

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but back when I ran my Nekusar deck, I hated Spiteful Visions and Phyrexian Tyranny because I found myself losing too much life from them. When everyone's attacking you because you're running Nekusar, the life loss really starts piling up. They are also very anti-synergistic with some of your cards such as Consecrated Sphinx and Thought Gorger .

I took them both out and found it easier to survive to win. Also, Once M15 rolls around, I'm assuming you'll want to run Waste Not, in which case there are even more reasons NOT to run Visions and Tyranny.

you are still 7 cards over the 100. My suggestions:

Baleful strix, consecrated sphinx, thought gorger - not worth it at all. You will almost never need cards.Thought gourger, dakra mystic, duskmantle guildmage - the benefit of those is very marginal. Nekusar decks never need to attack; making the table lose a card when you make them draw several per turn is bad; keeping up the effect of the guildmage is too costly.Misers cage, words of wind - marginally important effects.Arcane denial, crosis charm - optional draws are not optimal in nekusar decks; does almost nothing for its mana cost.Dreadbore, terminate - not really important for killing the opponents.

That is 12 cards removed. Remember, Nekusar is a combo deck. You want to do everything possible that actually accomplishes that, whilst surviving. Here are 5 cards that should definitely make your deck:

Memory Jar and Magus of the Jar - essetial in the combo kill when combined with the below cards:

Waste Not - focus a bit more on the discarding part.

Megrim and Liliana's Caress - similar to above.

Sangromancer is a nice survival addition. Damnation and Time Spiral should be automatic inclusions if you can afford them. Any planeswalkers besides the two you already have are unnecessary.

I would suggest removing Curiosity (you're not really attacking right?), Phyrexian Tyranny (kills you pretty quick), Misers' Cage (feels too slow), Burning Inquiry (doesn't seem to be worth with all the other wheel and deal effects you have), Wheel of Fate (takes too long to go off) and 3 "maybe" cards to remove might include Whirlpool Warrior (I've found it doesn't seem to do as much as I want it to when I've used it), Megrim (many liliana's caress is better and many EDH players use reliquary towers anyway) and Spiteful Visions (kills you fast though I understand it's usually a staple with Nekusar). Good luck!

I would say that Megrim is less effective when you Price of Knowledge to give everyone no hand size, I understand that there are still card effects that cause discard, but honestly, I don't think these two cards work too well together.

cut Mind Over Matter . Chandra Ablaze . and Vicious Shadows . also, while Spiteful Visions and Phyrexian Tyranny are nice, i find them too risky

Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar stops damage from spiteful visions if you want to you can look at my nekusar deck Did you brain your hurt when you down fell?

@Kozelek thanks for the suggestion! That's what I'm using Words of Wind for, but Tomorrow is good too. However, I'm already over my card limit with 106. Since you have a similar deck, could you maybe suggest what I could take out to drop to 100 and/or add Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar ?

Thank you!

Ok first off I'd drop all 3 signets and add in 1 Darksteel Ingot to replace them that's 2 down next drop Consecrated Sphinx ,Misers' Cage and Wheel of Fate adding in Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar the sphinx costs to much mana AND tomorrow lets you sift the top of your library enough that you should not need to draw off your opponents viseling does a better job than cage as cage is target opponent and 2 damage where as viseling is each opponent and X-4 so if they have 14 cards in hand the cage will only do 2 damage but viseling will do 10 Wheel of Fate takes to long to go off the only way to make it playable in my opinion is Paradox Haze but that's not what you need so dump it, down 4 just 2 more Thought Gorger would be epic with Tamiyo, the Moon Sage so you can just discard your hand into your hand lol so till you can afford her I'd drop him and as for a sixth card to drop.......Life's Finale or Price of Knowledge life's finale is a double edge sword yes it kills off threats but it kills your stuff too and getting 3 creatures from their deck into their graveyard could set them up for a mean Rise of the Dark Realms or evan Living Death any reanimation really and price of knowledge is good and all but costs to much mana and by the time you can cast it you'd be better off drawing a wheel effect instead, that said if you had one you should run Rise of the Dark Realms yourself with all the cards your going to be making every one discard